The three cronies standing beside Tommy all looked at me with sneers of pure disdain.

“You know where you are, right? This is the Wilson Family estate—the richest family in the country. A broke hillbilly like you doesn’t belong here.”

“Look at that flashy outfit, like some male escort. Bet he came here to seduce Miss Wilson and ruin the engagement party on purpose.”

“Exactly! This piece of trash even had the nerve to call Miss Wilson his ‘sweet girl.’ She’s the most prized successor in the Wilson Family—who the hell do you think you are?!”

I clenched my jaw and snapped back. “Calling her ‘sweet girl’ was me doing her a favor. If she had any sense, she’d be grinning in her sleep from the honor.”

Truth was, back when she was desperate for my approval, Sandra tried everything to get on my good side. She played the perfect little angel, just to win my favor.

And when I was in a good mood, I treated her like a younger relative—affectionate, but distant. I kissed her on the forehead, like a proud older brother.

She was over the moon. She even posted it online to show off. But Tommy saw it... and decided I was trying to steal his girl. That’s when the nightmare began.

He started a two-year campaign of bullying. He planted thumbtacks in my basketball shoes, stuffed pornographic cards in my desk drawer and poured industrial glue on my chair. He even spread filthy rumors online—claiming I seduced middle-aged teachers for money, saying one of them scrubbed my back with a steel wool brush.

Thanks to him, my name at school was garbage. I reported it over and over again. But every time, the school brushed it off with a forced apology from him, like that would fix everything.

Then, he crossed the line—he brought the fight to my home.

“I’m Sandra’s great–grandf..”

I didn’t even get to finish the sentence.

Tommy grabbed the soup pot in front of me and poured it over my head.

“Ahhh!”

Boiling broth drenched my scalp with a sickening hiss. It felt like my skin was shriveling under the heat. Before I could even process the pain, Tommy yanked my hair and smashed my head into the table. BANG. BANG. BANG. My face slammed against the wood again and again, blood spilling from my nose and mouth, the taste of metal and bile flooding my throat.

Tommy laughed maniacally. “Hahaha! Look at this bastard scream. Bet you moan just like this when you’re serving that old hag too.”

His rage only grew. He barked orders to his cronies, who pinned me down hard. “You want to steal food? Fine. Then I’ll break your hands.”

I screamed in horror, “Tommy, don’t you dare!”

But it was too late. He raised the heavy soup pot and brought it crashing down on my hands. Pain shot through all ten fingers like bolts of lightning. I could only watch, helpless, as my fingers twisted and bent at grotesque angles. And then—like a flash of fury—Oliver leapt into the air.

Fur puffed, claws out, my cat launched itself at Tommy’s face and slashed at him.

“Agh! You little beast!” Tommy roared and kicked Oliver hard, sending the cat flying across the room.

“Oliver!” Through the blinding pain, I forced myself free and scrambled to protect my cat, shielding its tiny body with my own.

“Don’t touch my cat! If Sandra finds out, she’ll never let you off the hook!”

Oliver wasn’t just a pet. It was a living memory—something my grandmother left behind before she passed. It meant everything to me.

In fact, the last patriarch of the Wilson Family once stepped on Oliver by accident. I so much as frowned—and he was immediately stripped of his position by the elders for disrespecting the family senior. Now? He’s begging for scraps.

Sandra knew all this. That’s why she’d go out of her way to win Oliver over—walking the cat, cleaning up its litter, even catching its diarrhea with her bare hands just to earn my trust.

“Wait... I’ve seen that cat before,” someone muttered. “I swear I saw it on the news—belongs to the Wilson Family. Looks exactly the same.”

A flicker of doubt passed through the crowd. But Tommy’s face only twisted deeper in rage.

“Oh, so now this loser thinks he can scare me?”

“There are plenty of cats that look the same. Just like him—it’s a filthy stray. Even if it is the Wilson Family’s cat, so what?”

“You think Sandra would throw me under the bus for a damn cat?”

A cold smirk crept across Tommy’s face as he exchanged a glance with his lackeys.

“Kill that filthy beast. I’ll take full responsibility.”

Their crazed laughter echoed off the walls as several boots came down hard on my body. My face was smashed into the floor, pressed and twisted under their soles until I could barely recognize myself. I watched helplessly, eyes wide with horror, as Tommy raised his foot. And just like that—Oliver was gone.

“NOOO!”

My scream ripped through the room, raw and broken, as I watched my cat’s fragile body go limp. Tommy turned toward me, his face warped with venomous satisfaction.

“Little pest handled. Now it’s time for the bigger one.”

Without another word, he yanked off his belt and began lashing it across my face. Again and again, each strike landed with a brutal crack, his voice gleeful as he counted.

“One! Two! Three! Hahaha, look at him! His face is swelling up like a pig’s head!”

“Let me add in my ‘Pretty Boy Punches,” one of the cronies joked, landing slap after slap.

My lips split open, swollen and numb. I couldn’t even feel them anymore. Blood and broken teeth slid down my chin like water. The agony turned everything inside my head to static. I could barely make out their words.

Still, I forced my busted lips to move. Somehow, I managed to speak through the pain.

“I... am Wilson’s great-grandfather. If you treat me like this... the Wilson Family will never let you walk out of here alive.”

Tommy burst into laughter, spitting in my face.

“Just because your last name is Wilson, that makes you his great-grandfather? Then I must be the ancestor of the whole Wilson surname! Let me honor my ancestors by tearing that lying rat mouth of yours apart!”

Suddenly, a firm voice cut through the chaos. “Who’s causing this racket?”

Everyone froze. We turned to see a man in the Wilson Family steward’s uniform standing in the doorway, exuding authority and presence. My heart leapt. Hope sparked in my chest.

“Steward! It’s me! I’m Danny!”

For the first time, Tommy’s followers hesitated. Their grip loosened slightly.

“Wait… is he actually someone important?”

The steward looked me up and down, then scoffed.

“Some filthy beggar off the streets? I’ve never seen him before in my life.”

“Use your brains, will you? The Wilson Family’s great-grandfather would be what—eighty or ninety years old? This kid hasn’t even grown all his hair yet and you believe he’s that guy?”

Of course he didn’t recognize me. Only the innermost circle of the Wilson Family had ever seen my real face. This steward was new. A nobody. Hope crashed to the floor like shattered glass.

Tommy sneered, hocking up a glob of phlegm and spitting it straight into my face. Then he turned and gave the steward a thumbs-up. “Smart man. That’s my dad right there.”

And just like that, everything made sense. Tommy’s arrogance, his recklessness—he wasn’t acting alone. He was hiding behind the steward’s authority the whole time. A blaze of fury ignited in my gut. My vision turned red as I glared at the man who dared stand in my house like he owned it.

“You let a stranger into the Wilson estate without the master’s permission? You’ve got some nerve.”

SMACK! Another slap from Tommy. More blood, more teeth gone.

“I am the future master of the Wilson Family. I go where I want, when I want.”

“Now shut your damn mouth. You’re ruining the vibe.”

They tied me up again—tight this time. Duct tape wound around my mouth, layer after suffocating layer. I couldn’t move. My head was shoved down, humiliated beneath their crotches as they laughed and rubbed against my face like animals.

Then something caught Tommy’s eye. My phone. He picked it up from the floor and used my bloody fingertip to unlock it. His face twisted with disbelief as he opened the photo gallery.

“You’ve got some imagination, don’t you? You actually Photoshopped yourself into pictures with Sandra?! You’re fantasizing about her this hard?! Even I haven’t gotten this close to her and you made it look like you’re her boyfriend?”

“Wait, wait, look at this one—a whole family photo and this clown photoshopped himself in the center. Playing make-believe in his little billionaire fantasy!”

He swiped through more images, then turned the screen to his friends.

“Who knows how much other perverted crap he’s hiding in here. We have to teach this sick creep a lesson.”

The goons gathered around him, whispering, laughing under their breath. Planning something even worse.

I was nothing more than a slab of meat laid out on a butcher’s block—helpless, humiliated and left for them to do whatever they pleased. Without hesitation, they lunged at me and began yanking down my pants.

All the while, the steward stood casually by the door, leisurely blowing smoke rings, keeping watch like this was nothing more than a routine operation.

They hoisted me upside down like a sack of trash, arms and legs flailing, face flushed with humiliation. Tommy scanned the dining table, grinning like a maniac as he picked up a spoonful of red chili oil.

“Let me help you out, bro. Time for your castration!”

“AAAH!”

The spicy oil burned like liquid fire as it dripped down my thighs and into places it should never have touched. The searing pain spread through my whole body like electricity. I couldn’t stop trembling.

“Damn, look at him shake. He’s totally into it.”

“Yeah, don’t make him addicted now! What if he comes back tomorrow begging for more chili oil?”

“Well then, guess we’ll just have to satisfy him again, won’t we?”

The steward chuckled at the spectacle, then casually walked over—still smoking—and pressed the burning cigarette straight into my groin.

My nerves were already numb, my body limp. But that pain... that pain yanked a scream out of me as I spasmed violently, then went completely still.

A few seconds later, my head slammed into the ground with a dull thud. Tommy cackled and whipped out my phone, snapping photos from every angle, making sure to capture my face twisted in agony. Then he posted them. Every family group chat. Every friend group. Every social media platform I was connected to.

Then he added the caption.

[I’m a horny little mutt, begging my master to come spoil me. The older the better.]

His gang swarmed in, laughing hysterically as they passed the phone around.

“Send it to me too, bro! This is comedy gold!”

Tears streamed down my face, hot with shame and pain. I had no strength left to resist. No pride left to protect. Blood mixed with my tears—my last shred of dignity draining away.

Grandpa… Grandma… Mom… Dad… I’m sorry. I’ve disgraced the entire Wilson Family.

“Since you're so eager to sell that ass,” Tommy sneered, “this publicity should really help your business. You’ll be rich in no time. Don’t thank me.”

He doubled over, laughing so hard he nearly fell over. His dogs joined in, even starting to sing “Chrysanthemum Terrace” as if mocking my shattered pride. But in that moment—tied up, face down, powerless—I still had one last ounce of fight left. I kicked. Hard.

My foot landed square on Tommy’s shin. He lost his balance and crashed to the floor, the back of his head slamming into the ground with a nasty thud.

“You bastard!—” He clutched the back of his head, wincing in pain.

“You dare fight back?! I swear, I’ll kill you right here and now and no one will say a damn thing!”

Raging, he scrambled to his feet, grabbed a dining fork and aimed straight for my neck. He stabbed down. Blood bubbled up the moment the fork pierced the artery in my throat. But then—

“Wait! Tommy!”

The steward's voice cut through the chaos, panicked and breathless.

“She’s here! Miss Wilson just arrived—she’s asking for the Great-Grandfather!”

They froze. Because none of them realized the person she was looking for—the real great-grandfather—was the same person they were torturing and humiliating.

“Clean this mess up! Fast!” the steward barked. “You can’t ruin your good-boy image in front of her! If the old man’s unhappy, your whole dream of marrying into the Wilson Family goes up in smoke.”

Tommy’s face changed instantly. He dropped the fork like it was on fire and nodded furiously.

“Right, right! Gotta get the old man’s approval. We can deal with him later.”

The steward pointed toward the back garden.

“There’s a dog cage in the shed. Toss him in there.”

I was dragged across the courtyard like a corpse. My body screamed with every movement, but no one cared. The others rushed to clean up the blood, hide the mess. Even Oliver’s body was unceremoniously dumped in a trash bin.

A few minutes later, Sandra walked into the house with a bag of cat treats in her hand. Her eyes lit up in surprise the moment she saw Tommy.

“What are you doing here? I thought you weren’t coming until later.”

Tommy gave her a soft, affectionate smile, voice dripping with fake tenderness. “I missed you too much. I couldn’t wait any longer. I just had to see you... and meet Great-Grandfather, of course.”

Sandra blushed, clearly eating it up. She playfully flicked his nose. “You’re still so sweet and thoughtful.”

She looked around the room, puzzled. “But... where is Great-Grandfather?”

Tommy quickly stepped forward with a teacup, kneeling in front of the main seat with exaggerated reverence.

“I’ve been waiting right here, holding this tea for him. The moment he walks in, I’ll be ready to serve him.”

Everyone stood by respectfully, playing their parts to perfection. Time passed. The sky began to darken. The mood turned tense. Sweat beaded on Tommy’s forehead. His legs trembled, numb from kneeling too long.

But the man he was waiting for—the one person who could shatter all their illusions—was just a few steps away. Locked inside a cage. Bleeding. Burned. Forgotten.